The Black Shadow
by KillerX
Summary: All original characters copyrited to their creators, who include myself, Sannabelle, and John O. Plummer Jr,used w/ permission. Wulf Garritz is mine and may not be used without permission. . Rated PG for some minor language and some brief violence.


"The Dark Shadow" 

"The Dark Shadow" 

Part 1: The Figure, Charlie Remembers, A Coincidence, A Phone Call 

Charlie and Sasha came out of the Flea Bite Café late one night. They were the last ones to leave, and were locking up. Unbeknownst to either of them, a dark shadow watched from across the street. The eyes were dark and filled with distrust and hatred. 

"Did I ever tell you you're beautiful?" Charlie asked. 

"At least every day," Sasha replied, giving Charlie a little kiss. 

The dark eyes from across the street narrowed. It would be easy to do what he had planned now; they were alone and unprotected. They suspected nothing. But something deep down inside his black heart told him to wait, to carry out his action as planned. 

"Heh, just you wait Charlie B. Barkin. You just wait till I get a hold you. Boy, you'll wish your mama had never met your dad," the figure growled, just loud enough not to be heard. 

By this time, Charlie and Sasha had begun to move on down the street toward home. The figure watched them till they were out of site, then stalked off in the opposite direction. He had work to do, and the night was still young. 

The next morning, Charlie woke up late. Sasha had already left to the café, and Charlie supposed her brother Shane would join her there. Charlie got up, stretched and yawned. Just then, the phone rang. Still slightly drowsy, Charlie picked up the phone and mumbled an almost unintelligible greeting. 

"Hey Charlie, this is Shane," the voice inside the phone said. "'Bout time you got up. Look, we found a weird card down here at the café, and thought you might wanna take a look at it. Maybe you know something about it." 

"Huh?" Charlie said. "Weird card? Nah, I don't know anything about any weird card. What does it say, pray tell?" 

"Well, that's why it's weird," the Irish Setter said. "It only has one word on it. Vengo. What do think it means?" 

"My Spanish ain't as good as it used to be Shane, but I think vengo means "I come." Sounds pretty creepy to me," Charlie explained. "Look, let me get out of bed here, and I'll be right down." 

" Sounds good," said Shane. "See ya later." 

With that, Shane hung up. 

Oh, Brother, thought Charlie. Calls me because somebody played a rather lame practical joke. Oh well, what ya gonna do? 

Charlie was just on his way out the door, when he spied a book lying in the middle of the floor of the foyer. A book that brought back memories. A book entitled "Duke, The Good Dog". 

Whoa, now there's a blast from the past, thought Charlie. Where the hell did that come from? I didn't even think I had that book anymore. 

Charlie looked at the illustration on the front cover. The drawing was of a large dog sitting in the middle of a hearth rug, smiling a silly doggy smile. Charlie found he didn't like that smile. He didn't trust it one bit. 

I bet your not happy at all, Charlie mused. I bet you are one dangerous guy. 

This was obviously an insane idea, complete off the wall, but Charlie didn't think it was crazy. It felt sane. It felt true. Charlie opened the cover and flipped absently through the first few pages. The drift of the story was that Duke was a good dog. He did everything his masters told him, and they loved him dearly. One day, Duke got lost and was captured by the dog catcher. 

Boy, who didn't see that coming, Charlie thought. 

The next picture was a two page splash of the family sitting and looking like they just lost their best friend, which according to the book, they had. The other picture showed Duke in a cell at the pound, looking incredibly forlorn. Even though it was poorly illustrated, it was still definitely a three-handkerchief job. One of those things designed to make children bawl their little eyes out. This was not the sentiment Charlie expressed. 

Good, Charlie thought. Let him sit there. He's dangerous. 

Of course, Duke was found and restored to his family and in the final page, it showed Duke smiling his same insipid doggy smile. Charlie guessed it was supposed to convey extreme happiness, but to Charlie, Duke looked like a lunatic. His faced twisted into a grimmace of insanity. 

Damn, Charlie thought. That sucks. Here you are in your own foyer, taking a stupid trip down memory lane, when Sasha and Shane are waiting for you. 

With disgust, Charlie threw the book down on the endtable, all thoughts of it banished for the day. When he arrived at the café, Sasha and Shane met him with another piece of interesting news. They had received a call that stated simply, to be prepared for the rising of the shadow. What could possibly happen next? 

Part Two: A Visitor, Shane alone, Sasha and Charlie make an unwelcome discovery. 

Charlie had only been there for a few moments when the door opened again and a pure white dog padded in. 

"Hey Charlie, Shane, Sasha, how ya doin' this fine morn…ing…" Snowy trailed off when he saw the solemn faces of his friends. "Hey guys, wassa matter? You look shocked." 

Shane and Sasha filled him in on everything that had happened that morning. Charlie filled in the previously unknown details of his interesting morning as well. 

When they had finished, Snowy was the first to speak. "Well guys, sounds like there was a pretty interesting morning around here. Haven't I ever told you not to have all the fun while I'm not around? Anyway, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any suspicious characters I see wandering around." 

As Snowy made a little humor out of the situation, the other found it easy to dismiss what had happened as a hoax, or a rather poorly executed practical joke. The rest of the day followed without incident. So did the next day. And the next. And the next. It seemed that everything had returned to normal. So a week later, Shane had no qualms whatsoever about staying after hours to do paperwork and catch up on the café's bookkeeping. Charlie and Sasha had said they would meet Shane after he had done what needed doing at the café, and would see him later. Shane had done his work, but it had taken him about an hour longer than he had expected. He was walking toward the front door, when he noticed a light in a back room that he was sure he had turned off. 

That's odd, Shane thought. I coulda sworn I turned that light off. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? 

As he stepped into the room, a pair of very large and very strong hands swiftly grabbed him. The hands closed around his throat and before Shane even realized what was happening, he was being strangled. 

At that precise moment, Charlie and Sasha were walking toward the café. They had given up waiting for Shane, and were going to go get him themselves. 

Shane struggled with the mystery assailant. He flung himself back with all his might, driving his attacker into the wall. The attacker let out a gasp of air as he plowed against the hard woodwork, and Shane caught a momentary breath of air. He lunged forward, reaching for something, anything, to defend himself with. He grabbed a mop, which might have made a decent weapon, but the attacker grabbed Shane and lifted him bodily off the floor. The mop flew from his hands as he crashed into the wall. With brutal strength, the attacker grabbed Shane by the throat again. Shane struggled mightily, but the attacker simply overpowered him. Shane found himself being dragged further away from the door, and noticed that black circles were beginning to dance across his field of vision. 

Sasha and Charlie were less than a block away. Little did they know, at the café, Shane was locked in a battle for his life. 

Shane, struggling to stay conscious, kicked and thrashed. He tried to scream, but all that came from his throat was a weak gurgling noise. With the very last bit of energy in his body, Shane threw himself forward, but to no avail. As he plunged downward into darkness, his last thoughts were, Ruby, Ruby, who is going to take care of Ruby, RubyRubyRubywhosgoingtotakecareofwhosgoingtotakecareof… 

Shane LaFleur lost consciousness. 

At that precise moment, Charlie and Sasha entered the café. 

"Hey Shane-o," Charlie yelled. "Where you at brother? Come on out man, you can finish the rest of whatever you're doing tomorrow." 

The attacker, who still had his hands around Shane's throat, snarled and fled out the back door. 

"What is that light doing on Charlie?" Sasha asked. 

"You know your brother, always leaving stuff on," said Charlie. "Lets go turn it off and find the guy." 

As Charlie and Sasha entered the room, a horrific sight met their eyes. Shane lay in a crumpled mass on the floor. 

"Oh my God, Shane!!!" screamed Sasha. "Oh my God, what happened!" 

Both dogs ran over to Shane's side. As they knelt next to Shane, the world seemed like a very empty and very cold place indeed. 

Part 3 

Snowy, Wulf tells his story, The final explanation 

Shane LaFleur opened his eyes and found two faces staring down into his. He tried to draw a breath, but his throat felt like it was full of cotton. He coughed, choked and almost gagged before he was finally able to draw a clean breath. The two dogs looking down on him looked very relieved. Charlie was the first to speak. 

"Holy cow Shane, don't ever scare us like that," he said. "When we came in here and saw you laying there, I think you took a few years off my life. What in God's name happened to you?" 

Shane proceeded to tell the details of his attack to Charlie and Sasha. He had no more than finished when who should burst in the door, but Snowy. 

"Whoa! What happened to Shane?" Snowy asked. Before anyone could reply, Snowy said, " I bet you got attacked." 

"How did you guess?" asked the trio incredulously. 

"Well, I was walking toward the club, and I see this big dog runnin' away from the back of the place. I follow him, `cause he looked suspicious as hell, tearin' down the road like he was. I find him living in a sleazy apartment house about a mile or so down. Then I run back here, and find you guys. I guess I just happened to be in the right place at the right time." 

By this time, Shane had gotten back to his feet, sore and bruised, but none the worse for wear. 

"I think we should find this character, and get some answers as to why this guy attacked and almost killed me," said Shane. "I think we should go right now, without delay." 

This was agreed upon, and in less than an hour, Shane, Charlie, Snowy, and Killer had formed a posse of sorts, and were out to find the attacker. They arrived at the mystery dog's door, just as the dog was leaving. The dog was bigger than any dog Shane could remember seeing in years. 

"Hey, punk, stop right there!" yelled Shane. 

With a thick German accent the dog replied, "I don't believe you are in any position to be giving me orders. That is, unless you'd like a nice stay in a hospital some place." Then the dog noticed the band that had gathered around Shane. The dog, whose name was Wulf, thought he could take any of them with ease, maybe even any two or three. But four? He didn't like those odds. Consequently, his manner changed remarkably. "Well, I see you have your posse with you. To what do I owe this pleasure?" 

"I believe we'll be asking the questions around here, buddy," said Shane. "Lets start with why you sneak attacked me in my own club!" 

Wulf's face suddenly seemed to crumple. "So you are alive?" he said. "Well, that's good to know." Noticing the other dog's puzzled expressions, Wulf continued. "I think I better do some explaining." "My name is Wulf Garritz. I originally hail from Dotterhoff, Germany, but have lived in California for the last 2 years. I was a member of the Dark Shadow gang in the San Diego area. We were the best there was, and controlled basically all aspects of the canine underground there. I tell you we had all the guys, myself, LeRoy Victory, Hanibel Arden, Xebu Basdenvich, we had them all. But I digress. Anyway, for personal reasons of my own that I will not reveal at this time, I found it convenient to move to the San Francisco area. I arrived about 2 weeks ago. I was hard up for cash, and still am. I was walking through the park, wondering where my next few bucks were going to come from, when I saw this purple whippet beckoning me over to her. I know that sounds crazy, but I tell you she was purple! She says something like; `You interested in making a few dollars?' I says, `How?' She says, I want you to get rid of a couple of people for me.' She showed me this picture with your pictures on it." He gestured at Charlie and Shane. "Then she slipped me 1000 dollars and told me I get 4000 more when I get the job done. Well, where I come from that is good money, so I agreed to do whatever she wanted. But I tell you; I didn't do this on my own. When I left her, I felt some type of, well, a spell come over me. I could think of nothing else but killing both of you. I left the "clues" as to what was happening, simply as red herrings, to throw you off. I don't know, I guess I thought you would think it was a ghost or something. I didn't plan that far in advance. All I could think about was doing what she told me. After I strangled you, I ran from the building. Then the spell was broken. I tell you man, I am so very sorry for all the pain I caused you." Wulf pulled out a wad of 50's and 100's. "Here man, you can have the thousand. Just don't go to the police, and I leave town and you never hear from me again. So, what do you say." 

With a grimace, Shane took the 1000 dollars and mumbled something that might have been, `No hard feelings'. 

With that, the mystery of the Dark Shadow came to an end, and one dog's earthy soul was saved. 

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